THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER RELEASE NEW SONG (“INTO THE EVERBLACK”) AND ALBUM DETAILS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Apr 092013
 

We’re way past the end of our typical posting day, but this news can’t wait: The Black Dahlia Murder and Metal Blade have revealed the album cover and release date for the band’s new album Everblack and have given all of us the first new song from the album for streaming: “Into the Everblack”.

The album will be released on June 11 and has now become available for pre-order here. The cover art, which is just fuckin’ delicious, is by none other than New Zealand’s Nick Keller. If you hang around this site with any regularity, you’ll know who he is because we’ve repeatedly raved about his work for NZ’s Beastwars, among other accomplishments.

Other luminaries were involved in the album’s creation — mixing by Jason Suecof (with Ryan Williams) and mastering by Alan Douches — and the album will include for the first time a song (“In Hell Is Where She Waits For Me”) that’s actually about the famous, unsolved 1947 “Black Dahlia murder” of Elizabeth Short from which the band took its name.

And that brings me to the just-released new song . . . Continue reading »

EARACHE PRESENTS THE WORLD’S SHORTEST ALBUM AND ONE OF THE YEAR’S MOST INSPIRED VIDEOS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 092013
 

I had time this morning to snoop around the web and my e-mail inbox in search of interesting new music and new videos. Unfortunately, at the moment my fucking day job isn’t allowing me enough time to listen to everything I found, much less write about it.

I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if I could find a whole album’s worth of songs I could listen to in about 82.8 seconds, with a video to go along with it?

And wow, what an amazing coincidence! Just as those thoughts crossed my mind I found a whole album of music lasting only 82.8 seconds (including the spaces between songs) AND a video to go with it! Yeah, it happened just like that.

How do you get 13 songs on an 82.8 second album? You fuckin’ griiiiiind, that’s how. Here’s the track list (plus run times for each song) for what Earache Records is billing as “The World’s Shortest Album”: Continue reading »

MAN MUST DIE: A FUND-RAISING UPDATE

 Metal News  No Responses »
Apr 092013
 

More and more bands are resorting to on-line fundraising campaigns in an effort to finance the recording and self-distribution of new music. Some of those campaigns have succeeded beyond the band’s wildest dreams, and some have turned into big disappointments. It appeared that the recent fundraising efforts of Scotland’s death metal juggernaut Man Must Die — a band whose past music we’ve backed hard at NCS — would fall into the latter category, but the tide is turning. It’s time for a final push.

MMD launched their on-line fundraiser via pledgemusic.com in early February, setting an ambitious target of. As late as last week, the band admitted defeat in this statement on their FB page: “We would like to thank everyone who tried to help make the new album happen but with only a few days left the reallity is we will not make our goal. MAN MUST DIE will try our very best to release something this year and we will include the names of all the people who pledged in the credits as a token of our appreciation.”

But it turns out that all was not lost. Today brought the following update: Continue reading »

KEEP OF KALESSIN RELEASES A NEW EP: “INTROSPECTION”

 Metal News  No Responses »
Apr 092013
 

Over the last week Norway’s Keep of Kalessin began another mysterious countdown on their Facebook page, similar to the countdown that led to release of the band’s official video for a hot new song named “Introspection”. Today the new countdown ended, and what came at the end was the release of a new digital EP by the same name — Introspection. The EP is now available at the following online digital services (the iTunes link below is to the Norwegian site — it’s not yet available on iTunes U.S. or Amazon U.S., but the band say that will happen soon):

iTunes      Spotify      WiMP

The band have  also announced today that Introspection is the first of several new EP’s and singles that they plan to release throughout the year, leading up to a new album that’s projected for October 2013.

In addition to the new single “Introspection”, the EP includes another new song, “Flight of the Hatchling” (the band’s first instrumental-only recording), and what KoK call “an extreme version of ‘The Dragontower'”. Here’s a more complete statement by KoK’s songwriter, guitarist, and new frontman Obsidian C: Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TIMOTHY POPE OF THE AMENTA

 Interviews  4 Responses »
Apr 092013
 

(DGR interviews Timothy Pope of Australia’s The Amenta.)

Around the time we posted about The Amenta’s music video for the song “Teeth” and subsequently reviewed their album Flesh Is Heir, we were given the opportunity to sit down with one of the group’s founding members (well, sit down as much as we can through the magic of the internet) and really talk about the group’s latest releases –  as well as get a general overview of the band throughout the years.

Synth/keyboardist/general technology wizard Timothy Pope has been with the band from its foundations and has seen it through various incarnations and sounds. As you can all see below – the man has a thing or two to say about a thing or two and really helps give a picture of what happens when the group sits down to write music, as well as the general philosophy of everything that goes in to the band. He even graced some of my sillier questions with serious responses.

This one is a good, long read so beware that it’s a time investment, but it’s also fascinating to see the inner gears of a machine like this turning, and get a glimpse of what went in to each song. It also functions as a hell of an introduction and tutorial to who these guys are and what they are about. Continue reading »

IMMOLATION INDOCTRINATES, DAMNED CREED INHALES THE HATE, AND PAOLO GIRARDI DELIVERS THE EYE CANDY

 Exceptions to the Rule, Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 082013
 

Continuing what has turned into a content-packed Monday, we’re packaging in this post features on the latest track premiere by Immolation, a new discovery from Greece (Damned Creed), and mysterious new artwork by Paolo Girardi.

IMMOLATION

No one with any sense really needs to be teased further about Immolation’s new album, because all sensible metalheads have already resolved to lay hands on it as soon as possible. But we’re getting teased again anyway.

Not long ago MetalSucks exclusively debuted yet another song from the forthcoming Kingdom of Conspiracy release — and it’s available for free download via the widget on their site. The song is a titanic bruiser powered by tremolo’d grinding, bullet-spitting drumfire, wraithlike soloing, and enough tempo shifts to keep you off balance while your head bangs merrily away. Continue reading »

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE: “DISARM THE DESCENT”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Apr 082013
 

(TheMadIsraeli turns in this review of the new album by a revitalized Killswitch Engage.)

I’m going to be getting back to the br00tz here in a minute, but we need to take a moment and reflect on an album I think would be a shame to go on without mentioning here.

Everyone should know who Killswitch Engage are by now; they’ve become something of a household name and are the flag bearers of the early metalcore movement.  I’ve written about KSE once before, when I started my series on my top 20 albums of all time and covered the band’s acclaimed and treasured sophomore effort Alive or Just Breathing.  That album, as well as the band’s lesser known S/T debut, had energy, passion, and (at the time) a fresh combination of sounds that really served as a gateway into metal for thousands of listeners.  In my case, metalcore was what really motivated me to explore the spectrum of metal, due to the diversity its early proponents incorporated into their sounds.

Killswitch Engage have had an uneven career since the departure of original vocalist Jesse Leech.  Not only did they lose an iconic modern-metal front man, the replacement they acquired (Howard Jones) left much to be desired in the eyes of many fans who had been around since the self-titled debut.  As one of the people who were really disappointed with Jones, I can tell you that in comparison to Leech, many early fans felt he was technically excellent but lacking in the raw power, intensity, and commitment conveyed by Leech’s vocals. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: MORDBRAND – “UNMAKE”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Apr 082013
 

Imagine this:

Massed armies of the night stacked in ranks under a blood red moon, their veins surging with adrenaline, teeth bared, straining at the leash.

Before them lies a wasted no man’s land, stripped of life, muddied by lakes of blood and stinking with the decay of putrescent corpses from the carnage of previous nights.

Their master barks the word for which they wait and they bolt forward as one, the stillness broken by the cacophony of their headlong race. A thousand growls erupt from their throats, the ground pounds with the weight of their charge. Bloodied mud spatters and scatters, bones crunch beneath their scampering feet, they find their rhythm amongst the flesh of the unburied.

Their foes cower and cringe in the rapidly closing distance, they wail in anticipation of the utter destruction advancing upon them. They turn, they run, but not fast enough. Continue reading »

“I WON’T FORGET” SHINING’S NEW VIDEO, OR THESE NEW SONGS BY ABORYM AND ZOLLE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Apr 082013
 

In this post are three new things I found yesterday and this morning that I found interesting. The first is a brand new video by Norway’s Shining and the next two are new tracks released as teasers for new albums by Aborym (Italy/Norway) and Zolle (Italy).

SHINING

Shining’s new album One One One is out today in Norway and will be released in North America and Europe in late May or early June, but will be available digitally beginning April 23. Today also saw the premiere of the band’s official video for “I Won’t Forget”. The sharp-edged, industrial-tinged song rocks really fuckin’ hard, and of course it includes a 21st century schizoid sax solo.

The video is also fantastic. The colors, the lighting, the editing, the headbanging, the boobs, they’re all just excellent. Watch it right after the jump. Continue reading »

BLATANT PLUG PART 2 (A NEW ERA OF CORRUPTION)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 082013
 

(Andy Synn wrote this post. I obviously need to give Andy some lessons in blatant self-promotion, since he devotes most of this post to plugging the competition!)

So here we go again… time for a blatant plug to abuse my position here at NCS for the benefit of my band. Deal with it. Also, please go here and vote for Bloodguard because we would quite like to play Bloodstock this year, and this is one way for us to attract attention from the individuals responsible for booking the bands!

Now one of the issues to navigate with being in this competition is balancing my role as a “musician” (parentheses intended) with my role as a “journalist/critic” (parentheses probably even more intended). So I have to try and separate these two sides of myself. There’s an issue that being critical about other bands (warranted as it may sometimes be) might reflect badly on me and my band mates, and might adversely affect our chances.  But why let that fear strangle honest opinion and debate? Do you agree? Disagree? Don’t care either way?

Still, looking through the veritable host of bands signed up to the competition, a few trends have become clear (mentioned some of them last time around as well). Continue reading »

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